Way before cosplay was mainstream, Italy's Giorgia was doing her thing, dressing up as game and anime characters. She's been cosplaying since 1997, which, in internet time, must be a century.
Giorgia's photos are extremely well done—ditto for the outfits. No wonder she won Best Individual Cosplayer at the 2005 World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, Japan.
Lots of Western cosplayers dress up as Japanese game and cartoon characters—fewer of them dress up as characters from, say, a South Korean MMO. Have a look at Giorgia's take on Yuan from Cabal Online. Developed by ESTsoft, the free-to-play Cabal Online was first released in 2005 in South Korea.
If you like Giorgia's work, check out her site in the link below.
Yuan [Giorgia Cosplay]
(Top photo: Demis Albertacci & Bruno Sturman | Giorgia Cosplay)